Members of the Lawton Redistricting Commission selected a new option for City Council ward boundaries Thursday, resetting the clock for a proposal that would move 14 percent of the city’s residents into new wards.
While new, the selected map is similar to the previous one.
Commissioners had voted Nov. 4 on their favored option for a new ward boundary map, one that reflects 6,600 fewer residents living inside the Lawton city limits, as defined by the 2020 Census. But city staff recommended the commission reconsider its vote after finding “issues” when they began preparing the legal description for how boundaries were drawn. City Planner Janet Smith said there were inaccuracies that had to be corrected, and in the end administrators recommended the commission rescind its Nov. 4 vote and listen to city staff outline three revised options before selecting a new one.
Both actions were taken Thursday, setting the clock ticking on a public comment period that will extend to Jan. 6 under a recommendation from the city attorney. By law, the redistricting commission is the final authority on ward boundary maps that determine which of eight City Council wards residents live in, with boundaries updated every 10 years to reflect the Census.
Because Lawton’s population dropped by 6,600 people, wards were revised, meaning some residents will be voting in new wards when the new map is set into place in early 2022.
The option unanimously favored by the redistricting commission has a population variance of 9.3 percent between the largest and smallest wards, meeting the required 10 percent variance. When city staff plugged Lawton’s new population numbers into existing wards, the variance between largest and smallest wards is 24.76 percent.
Map options prepared by city staff sought a population of 9,544 residents per ward, and Option A ranges from 3.64 percent less (Ward 5, with 9,180 residents) to 5.66 percent more (Ward 7, with 10,110 residents. This option also splits four precincts between wards: Precinct 2 (Wards 1 and 6 in northwest Lawton), Precinct 26 (Wards 5 and 7 in south Lawton), Precinct 31 (Wards 2 and 4 in east Lawton) and Precinct 45 (Wards 7 and 8 in southwest Lawton).
The three options outlined for commissioners Thursday all split precincts, something city staff said they try to avoid, but also an option often unavoidable when conforming to requirements to keep ward populations essentially equal.
Option A also had the fewest number of residents — 86 percent — unaffected by new ward boundaries, said GIS Department technician Kristi Shannon as she outlined the maps. The other two options left 83 and 84 percent of residents unaffected. The option selected by commissioners on a 4-3 vote in November had a population deviation of 9.18 percent and split Precincts 2, 26, 31 and 32.
Smith said the greatest change in ward boundaries comes for residents in west Lawton’s Ward 8, which now stretches from Rogers Lane to West Lee Boulevard, Northwest/Southwest 52nd/53rd streets to Northwest/Southwest 67th streets. The new configuration shrinks to Cache Road on the north, but stretches south and west into what is now Ward 7. In east Lawton, new boundaries put more Ward 4 neighborhoods into Ward 7.
The map keeps intact neighborhoods between Northwest 2nd Street and North Sheridan Road, Cache Road to Northwest Ferris Avenue. Commissioner John Purcell had cited that area as a concern when the group was discussing boundaries in November because the staff’s preferred option moved those neighborhoods from Ward 2 to Ward 5.
“That’s a lot of people moving,” Purcell said, citing the residential opposition commissioners faced in the wake of 2010 Census adjustments when they moved residents from one ward to another.
Thursday’s decision avoids another issue commissioners were not allowed to consider: If they move that area from Ward 2 to Ward 5, Ward 2 Councilman-elect Kelly Harris would be a one-term councilman. Harris could keep his seat because he was elected under existing ward boundaries, but could not seek re-election in three years because he would become a Ward 5 resident.
State law and city charter specifies boundaries may not be configured to protect or defeat an incumbent. Regulations also specify commissioners should, when possible, consider contiguity, compactness and “communities of common interest” when setting ward boundaries.
